Hurricane season is officially here

Hurricane season is here, and we could be seeing more hurricanes
this year than we have in the past few years.

We're officially in the five-month period where hurricanes
are most likely to happen in the Atlantic Ocean, and we've
already seen two named storms. The first storm of the
year, named
Alex, happened in January way outside the normal hurricane
season. The second,
named Bonnie, is winding down after reaching
tropical storm status over the weekend.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects a
"near-normal" hurricane season with about 10-16 named storms
(this includes everything from tropical storms to hurricanes
traveling faster than 150 miles per hour). That
"near-normal" prediction would mean there could me more
hurricanes in the Atlantic this year than there have been the
past few, which were considered "below normal."

Here are the rest of the names you can expect to see in
the coming months (up next is Colin):

NOAA

In its forecast, the NOAA expressed a lot of uncertainty in
their predictions.

“This is a more challenging hurricane season outlook than
most because it’s difficult to determine whether there will be
reinforcing or competing climate influences on tropical storm
development,” Gerry Bell, the lead seasonal hurricane
forecaster at the NOAA said in a statement.

It will depend a lot on how
the La Niña weather pattern plays out, if it
materializes at all. Right now, the NOAA is on a La Niña
watch.

Elsewhere, the central basin of the Pacific Ocean is
looking at a 40% chance of having either a near-normal or above
normal season and is looking at about 4-7 tropical cyclones,
while the eastern basin has a 40% chance of near-normal and 30%
chance of below normal with about 13-20 storms.